50 Fun Facts About 42 (Movie)

Which then little-known actor played Jackie Robinson in 42 after auditioning twice for the role?

Chadwick Boseman won the part by choosing to read its hardest scene at his audition. He had been directing an off-Broadway play and was weighing giving up acting altogether.

Which actor wore a fat suit and prosthetics to play Dodgers boss Branch Rickey in the film 42?

Harrison Ford also studied Hall of Fame recordings to master Rickey's voice. The director had wanted a character actor for the part, but the star's persistence changed his mind.

Which Kentucky-born Dodgers shortstop puts his arm around Jackie Robinson before a jeering crowd in 42?

Pee Wee Reese had refused to join his teammates' protest against Robinson that spring. A statue of the two men side by side was unveiled in Brooklyn in 2005.

In the film 42, what does Branch Rickey ask Jackie Robinson to do when opponents hurl abuse at him?

Never hit back was the promise Rickey wanted in a three-hour meeting in August 1945. Robinson agreed to turn the other cheek, and Rickey signed him for $600 a month.

Which Negro leagues team is Jackie Robinson playing shortstop for when a Dodgers scout finds him in 42?

Kansas City Monarchs paid Robinson $400 a month, and he played only 47 games at shortstop for them. The club's most famous player was the pitcher Satchel Paige.

Who hosted a White House screening of 42 for students, joined by Jackie Robinson's widow?

Michelle Obama held the screening in the State Dining Room ten days before the film opened. She told the 80 students that she and the president had found it very powerful.

The film 42 was the breakthrough for a lead actor who later played which Marvel superhero?

Black Panther made him a global star in 2018, five years after 42. He was the first Black actor to headline a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

Which brand-new baseball award did Jackie Robinson win for 1947, the Dodgers season dramatised in the film 42?

Rookie of the Year was handed out for the first time in 1947, and Robinson took it. Forty years later both leagues' versions of the award were renamed in his honour.

As the film 42 recalls, Jackie Robinson faced a wartime court-martial after refusing to do what?

Told to move back on an Army bus, Robinson stayed where he was and was arrested. An all-white panel of nine officers acquitted him, and he was honourably discharged later that year.

Which relief pitcher was the last player to wear 42 after baseball retired it league-wide for Jackie Robinson?

Mariano Rivera kept the number under a grandfather clause until he retired in 2013, the year the film came out. No number had been retired across a whole major American league before.

In 42, where is Jackie Robinson caught in a racial confrontation when a Dodgers scout approaches him?

At a gas station is where the scout catches up with him, sent by Rickey to bring him to Brooklyn. That same scout later ran the Dodgers on the day Robinson made his big-league debut.

Which Dodgers farm team does Jackie Robinson play for in 42 before he is called up to Brooklyn?

Montreal Royals got four hits from Robinson in his very first game, including a three-run homer. He spent a single season in Canada before Brooklyn called him up.

In which Florida city does Jackie Robinson begin spring training with his minor-league club in 42?

Daytona Beach let Robinson play when other Florida towns locked their ballparks or called games off. The ballpark where he made his debut there now carries his name.

In 42, what do some Dodgers players draw up in spring training to keep Jackie Robinson off the team?

A petition went round the clubhouse until the manager called the players together and told them Robinson was staying. Its organiser was traded away after the season.

Which fiery Dodgers manager tells rebelling players in 42 that Robinson stays, then is suspended for a year?

Leo Durocher, known as Leo the Lip, was banned for a year just days before Opening Day. A coach ran the team for the first games until a retired manager agreed to take over.

Which unfamiliar position does Jackie Robinson learn in Panama in 42 so he can crack the Dodgers lineup?

First base was new to Robinson, who had played second in the minors, because Brooklyn already had a second baseman it trusted. He moved back to second the following year.

Which Philadelphia Phillies manager taunts Jackie Robinson with racial slurs from the dugout in 42?

Ben Chapman's abuse backfired: Rickey said it did more than anything to unite the Dodgers behind Robinson. The Phillies fired him the following season, and he never managed in the majors again.

In 42, what does Jackie Robinson do alone in the stadium tunnel after enduring the Phillies manager's abuse?

Smashes his bat against the wall, then weeps: it is the film's rawest scene. It was invented for the screen, and the lead actor picked it to read at his audition.

In 42, what does the Phillies' general manager force his manager to do with Jackie Robinson after bad press?

Pose for a photograph they did, and the real picture survives. Robinson later wrote that standing beside the man was one of the hardest things he ever made himself do.

In 42, a hostile crowd at Crosley Field jeers Jackie Robinson until a teammate embraces him in which city?

Cincinnati sits just across the river from Kentucky, the teammate's home state. Accounts differ on whether the real gesture came there or in Boston, and in 1947 or 1948.

Which St. Louis Cardinals outfielder spikes Jackie Robinson's leg with his cleats during a game in 42?

Enos Slaughter left Robinson with a seven-inch gash. In the film Robinson calms his furious teammates and tells them to concentrate on winning the game instead.

In 42, Jackie Robinson's home run off Fritz Ostermueller clinches the pennant against which team?

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ostermueller beans Robinson earlier in the film, but the real pitch never reached his head. The real Ostermueller also threw left-handed, not right-handed as on screen.

Which Black sportswriter, barred from the press box, travels with Jackie Robinson as his chronicler in 42?

Wendell Smith had recommended Robinson to Rickey in the first place. His newspaper paid for him to travel with Robinson, who had to stay in separate hotels from his teammates.

Ed Charles, the boy who idolises Jackie Robinson in 42, grew up to win the 1969 World Series with which team?

New York Mets fans knew him as the Glider, and at 36 he was the oldest of the Miracle team. He wrote poetry about baseball and racism during his years in the minors.

In 42, what does a young Florida fan do once the train carrying Jackie Robinson has pulled away?

Puts his ear to the rail, to keep hearing the train: the real Ed Charles said he did exactly that as a boy. The film adds a ball tossed to him by Robinson, which never happened.

Which popular Dodgers outfielder, known as the People's Cherce, joins the clubhouse revolt against Robinson in 42?

Dixie Walker was a batting champion and a Brooklyn favourite, so his opposition carried weight. He wrote to Rickey asking for a trade and left for another club after the season.

The pennant won at the end of 42 sent Jackie Robinson's Dodgers to the 1947 World Series against which team?

New York Yankees beat Brooklyn in seven games, with Robinson the first Black player to appear in a World Series. The Dodgers lost to them three more times before finally winning in 1955.

At which university was Jackie Robinson, the hero of 42, the first athlete to letter in four sports?

UCLA knew him best as a football star: baseball was his weakest sport there, and he hit .097 in his only season. He also won the 1940 NCAA long jump title.

Rachel Robinson, a consultant on the film 42, built her own career in which profession, later teaching it at Yale?

Nursing took her from a bachelor's degree in 1945 to a psychiatric master's and an assistant professorship at Yale. After Jackie's death she founded the foundation that bears his name.

Which actress read the real couple's love letters to prepare to play Rachel Robinson in the film 42?

Nicole Beharie thought the letters, written while Jackie was on the road, told an incredible love story. A Juilliard graduate, she went on to lead the TV series Sleepy Hollow.

Which Firefly cast member plays the Phillies manager who baits Jackie Robinson from the dugout in 42?

Alan Tudyk said publicly how uncomfortable the character's language made him. The writer-director, who had cast him before in A Knight's Tale, insisted the slurs stay as violent as the real ones.

Which actor, best known as a TV detective, plays the Dodgers manager suspended just before Opening Day in 42?

Christopher Meloni is Detective Elliot Stabler in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Here he plays the fiery skipper who backs Robinson and is then banned for the whole of 1947.

Which actor plays Red Barber, the Mississippi-born voice of Dodgers radio broadcasts, in the film 42?

John C. McGinley is best known as Dr. Cox in Scrubs. The real Barber, a Southerner, nearly quit rather than call Robinson's games, then became one of his firmest supporters.

Which screenwriter of Mystic River wrote and directed the film 42 after pitching his plan to Rachel Robinson?

Brian Helgeland persuaded her to drop a cradle-to-grave biopic and focus on 1945 to 1947. He met her three days after a producer's call, having read Jackie's autobiography in between.

The writer-director of 42 won an Academy Award for adapting which James Ellroy crime novel for the screen?

L.A. Confidential won him the adapted screenplay Oscar in 1998. That same year he also won a Razzie for The Postman, and he accepted that statuette in person too.

Which director planned a Jackie Robinson biopic at Turner Pictures in the 1990s, long before 42 was made?

Spike Lee's film was meant for 1997, the fiftieth anniversary of Robinson's debut. It collapsed over creative differences, and a later studio deal failed for want of funding and a script.

Which actor did a studio court to play Jackie Robinson in a 1990s biopic that collapsed long before 42?

Denzel Washington was the studio's choice for a film it wanted in cinemas by 1997. When 42 finally arrived, its makers cast an unknown on purpose, wary of one famous face playing another.

Which star set up a Jackie Robinson biopic in 2004, planning to produce it and play Branch Rickey himself?

Robert Redford had already played a ballplayer in The Natural. His project stalled, and nine years later the part of Rickey in 42 went to another veteran leading man.

Which demolished Brooklyn ballpark, home of the Dodgers, was rebuilt digitally for the film 42?

Ebbets Field came down in 1960, so the crew put a 1,200-foot green screen around a minor-league park and added the stands by computer. Scanned architectural drawings guided them.

Engel Stadium, a 1930 ballpark in which Tennessee city, stood in for the Dodgers' Brooklyn home in 42?

Chattanooga's old park has form with pioneers: in 1931 a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig there. The shoot put about $5 million into the local economy.

Rickwood Field, America's oldest surviving professional ballpark and a set for 42, stands in which Alabama city?

Birmingham opened the park in 1910 for the Barons, and the Negro leagues' Black Barons shared it. In 42 it doubles for several major-league and minor-league stadiums.

Which home run legend visited the set of 42 and told Jackie Robinson's portrayer about the racism he had faced?

Hank Aaron's career briefly overlapped with Robinson's, and he endured racist threats of his own while chasing Babe Ruth's record. The star said the visit felt as if Robinson himself were there.

The actor who played Jackie Robinson in 42 grew up devoted mainly to which sport, not baseball?

Basketball was his game, and a college tried to recruit him for it. For 42 he trained with professional baseball coaches for five months, comparing himself with Robinson on a split screen.

What did the makers of 42 put in the ballpark seats as placeholders before adding digital crowds of Brooklyn fans?

Inflatable mannequins held the seats until each was replaced by a fan filmed separately against a blue screen. Even the infield and home plate were moved to match the old Brooklyn park.

Which music legend did the star of 42 portray a year later in the biopic Get on Up?

James Brown took two months of rehearsal, five to eight hours a day, and the actor did all of his own dancing. He later played Thurgood Marshall too, extending a run of real-life icons.

Which actress played Rachel opposite Jackie Robinson himself in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story?

Ruby Dee acted opposite a novice: Robinson played himself while still an active Dodger. The producers had refused studio demands for scenes of a white man teaching him the game.

Branch Rickey traced his crusade to the mistreatment of Charles Thomas, a Black catcher he coached at which college?

Ohio Wesleyan's team was refused a hotel room for Thomas because of his race, and Rickey never forgot how upset his player was. Rickey had been the school's catcher himself before coaching there.

Which former Kentucky governor was the baseball commissioner who approved Jackie Robinson's Dodgers contract?

Happy Chandler had the power to void the contract and chose to approve it. He also threatened the Phillies with discipline over their taunts, and set up the players' first pension fund.

Which Dodgers scout, sent to find Jackie Robinson in 1945, also managed the team on Robinson's first big-league day?

Clyde Sukeforth wrote Robinson's name into the lineup as interim manager on Opening Day 1947. Years later he was also instrumental in scouting Roberto Clemente.

Which retired manager, lured back by Branch Rickey in 42, ran the Dodgers in street clothes instead of a uniform?

Burt Shotton was 62 and sure his dugout days were over when Rickey pleaded with him to step in. He won the pennant that year and another in 1949, usually adding a team cap and jacket.